Products such as medicaments are primarily but not exclusively packaged in blister packs comprising one or plurality of deformable protrusions formed in a flexible sheet with a closure for each of the protrusions. An area of concern with regard to blister packs has been the uncontrolled ease with which products can be dispensed. This becomes particularly important when blister packs are handled by children and/or physically challenged. Further, establishing the authenticity and genuineness of a packaged product before use is essential as counterfeited products when consumed can cause grave harm to the patients.
Various attempts to achieve the above objectives are reported in literature.
Prior art reveals typically three design features on which child resistant packages are configured. One such design includes enclosure/carrier and package, wherein the package is removably enclosed in an enclosure having child resistant features. However in such designs, the package has to be removed from the enclosure for accessing the product resulting in separation of the package from the enclosure. Another design involves linkage of the package with the enclosure/carrier in a manner wherein the linkage is maintained even while the product is accessed. Yet another design comprises of a combination package wherein a portion of the package has restricted access zone while the other portion has a general access zone. Such a design is incapable of providing child resistant features in its entirety.
Further, some of these designs suffer from a drawback that in certain orientations such as vertically placed with the enclosure opening facing downwards, mere operation of the initial child resistant feature such as depression of a lever can result in release of the non child resistant blister package with negligible effort.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,201,274 discloses a package having a simultaneous stop, alignment, and enhanced tamper-resistant feature, wherein the package has an outer sleeve and a slide card slidably disposed within the outer sleeve. A stop panel is disposed on an inside surface of the outer sleeve and has an extension panel extending away therefrom, wherein the extension panel enhances the tamper-resistant nature of the package. A guide panel extends along a longitudinal edge of the outer sleeve and has a length equal to or greater than a combined length of the stop panel and extension panel. The guide panel being folded over the extension panel to defined a channel between an edge of the guide panel and a score line separating first and second panels of the outer sleeve.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,325,689 discloses a pharmaceutical package assembly that includes a tether having a fold-over card mating feature, and a fold-over card configured to house one or more pharmaceutical blisters, wherein the fold-over card includes a tether mating feature. One exemplary method of coupling the fold-over card to a tether includes forming a tether receiving recess in the front side of the fold-over card, folding the front side of the fold-over card adjacent to the back side of the fold-over card so that the tether receiving recess reveals an exposed portion of the fold-over card front side, and coupling the tether to the revealed portion of the card front side. Another exemplary method of coupling a fold-over card to a tether having a front side and a back side includes forming a fold-over card receiving recess in the tether such that when the front side of the tether is folded adjacent to the back side of the tether, the fold-over card receiving recess reveals an exposed portion of the tether, and coupling the fold-over card to the revealed portion of the tether.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,188,728 discloses a child-resistant senior-friendly blister card packaging that is cheap and easy to manufacture. The packaging requires a push-peel-push method for opening, which is cognitively and physically challenging for children and mentally impaired adults. Yet, competent adults can easily open the package, especially after reading instructions. More specifically, opening the package requires the user to: 1) Push through an aperture to create a pull tab; 2) Pull on the pull tab to remove a panel; and 3) Push the blister to force the contents through the blister's seal. Advantageously, the present invention is designed such that information such as instructions and product information can be easily printed directly on the packaging. Moreover, users may also record information directly on the packaging.
EP Patent 1685 034 discloses child resistant packaging system and method for making same. It is essentially a combination pack wherein the same blister pack is provided with free access portion and child resistant portion wherein access to some medications is restricted. Thus it is not a completely child resistant package system.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,679,381 discloses one hand opening child resistant blister pack container comprising top and bottom tray preferably connected by a hinge. The top and bottom trays have a tab extending therefrom. Blister pack is contained in this container.
The review of the prior art reveals following drawbacks:                Physical dislodgement of the package from the child resistant enclosure while accessing product from the package thereby enhancing the possibility of temporarily or permanently separating the package from the child resistant enclosure        The absence of any provision to alert and or alarm the user to replace with proper re-positioning of the package in the child resistant enclosure after use        Incapability of providing child resistant features in entirety.        Mere operation of the initial child resistant feature such as depression of a lever can result in release of the non child resistant blister package with negligible effort.        Lack of dedicated and permanent pairing of the package and the tray leading to the danger of misuse of the support/tray/enclosure after of the consumption of the product in the package        Lack of provision to remind user to reposition the package in the child resistant enclosure after use        Additional openings in the package holding provisions such as tray and lack of single mould construction because of the child resistant hinging cap        Isolation of the package from the child resistant enclosure while accessing product from the package resulting in the danger of separation of the package from the child resistant enclosure        
There is therefore a long-felt need to provide child-safe package systems to ensure that a child has to perform multiple operations to access the product from the package without dislodging the product pack from the packaging system, and easily repositioning the product pack in the packaging system, optionally equipped with user alert/alarm as a safety provision. Further it is desirable to build into the packaging system means to uniquely identify the said product package associated with the packaging system for diverse applications including anticounterfeiting, pharmaco-vigilence in clinical trials, enhancing patience compliance, etc.